By Chioma Umeha
To meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
goal six by 2030, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said that
Nigeria must intensify efforts in ensuring access to portable water supply.
The United Nations body is worried that 15 million
Nigerians still drink water from rivers, lakes, ponds, streams and irrigation
canals and have tasked the Federal Government to improve access to safe
drinking water.
Moustapha Niang, UNICEF specialist, who spoke
recently, during a two-day media dialogue on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
WASH, organised by UNICEF in partnership with the Child Right Information
Bureau (CRIB) of the Ministry of Information, expressed concern over lack of
safe drinking water in the country.
Niang said that 57 million Nigerians lacked access
to potable water supply and added that more than half of this figure lives in
rural areas.
He noted that accessibility to safe water can save
the lives of most under-five children that die annually from water-borne
diseases.
With most of these diseases caused by poor access
to safe water, the UNICEF specialist warned: “If the government do not put in
more effort to ensure access to safe water supply, Nigeria is unlikely to meet
the Sustainable Development Goals six target.
“We need to do 20 times more of what we are
currently doing in terms of policies and funding in providing safe water to the
people,” he said.
“For example, in 1999, 12 per cent of the
population has pipe access to their homes but this percentage declined to two
percent as at 2015.”
The SDG goals six aims at ensuring availability
and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Mr Udom Emmanuel, the Akwa Ibom state governor, in
his remarks, noted that the state
government was providing new strategic policies that would ensure provision of
potable water across the state.
Emmanuel who was represented at the event by Mr.
NseEde, the Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Political, Legislative Affairs and Water Resources, observed that
the state government was not only doing this for the people of Akwa Ibom
state, but for the whole South
South region.
Martha Hokonya, UNICEF WASH Specialist, in her
presentation enumerated the benefits of provision of potable water and urged
journalists to do the needful in prompting the government to invest in
provision of potable water.
Hokonya, also said such investment in addition to job creation, reduces
diseases and mortality rate, improves
productivity and also provides time for women to engage in other
activities like child care and others activities which brings women together.
